Disclaimer: I don not own Night at the Museum or any of the characters and historical figures used. Viola is mine, and that's it.
"We already got the combination. It's pi, 3.14159265," Al announced as we walked in to here Kahmunrah threatening Dad to give him the combination, "So Crazy Hair here, he sang. Oh, did he sing! Like a canary."
"I'm sorry, Larry," the bobble head said to my Dad sadly.
"Enough out of you! Remember what happened last time," Al threatened him.
"That's enough," I demanded as I took Einstein away from Al, and set him down on a table ladened with gold coins.
"Viola," Dad called out as he ran over to me.
"Hey Dad," I hugged him tightly.
"Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"
"I'm fine Dad, don't worry about me."
"Aw, what an adorable reunion," Kahmunrah cooed, " but it won't last long. It must be a real bummer for you, Larry, knowing that all of your valiant efforts were, in the end, for naught." He placed the tablet where it belonged and began to punch in the combination, "What a terrible disappointment you must be to yourself. Do you hear that humming sound? Do you know what that sound is?" Ivan rose his hand to answer, but Kahmunrah shot him down, "It's rhetorical. That is the sound of the End."
I felt Dad put a protective arm around my shoulders as we watched Kahmunrah's gate to the underworld open, with a bright, brilliant light revealing itself from the gate.
"Welcome to the new, extended reign of Kahmunrah, Fifth King of Egypt and now the world! Horus, Ra, my warriors, come forth! Send Larry Daley, his daughter, and his friends to their doom," Kahmunrah commanded the strange bird-human hybrids that began walking out of the gate.
I heard my Dad and Jed talking to each other, but I didn't listen to a word they said. I looked over to Al, who was taking a few steps back along with Ivan and Napoleon. I immediately felt guilt for abandoning him for my Dad and not being there for him at the end.
The strange hybrids came closer to us at Kahmunrah's command, and I was soon thinking of the worst.
"Halt," A voice cried out. I turned in the direction of the voice, and was relieved to see Octavius had come. "The mighty Octavius has returned! I ride on the back of nature's most fearsome creature! I ride the squirrel! Forward now, my mighty steed! Whoa, girl! Easy." Octavius stopped directly in front of Kahmunrah, "Do you wish to surrender honorably? Or must this end with the spilling of your blood?"
"This? This is your big rescue," Kahmunrah asked, laughing uncontrollably.
"Oh no," Octavius answered him, "This is!"
Everyone whirled around at the sound of breaking glass to witness Abraham Lincoln enter through the window.
"What is that thing," Kahmunrah demanded to know as he gazed up at it.
"The name's Abraham Lincoln," the stone statue of our nation's sixteenth president introduced himself, "and you, sir, are in a heap of trouble!
"Attack it," Kahmunrah commanded his hybrid warriors.
Abraham Lincoln looked at the hybrid warriors in disgust, "Disgusting half-pigeons!" Abraham began to flick them in all directions. This frightened all of the hybrid warriors, and the began to run back to the underworld.
"No, no, no! Hello? Wait, wait, wait. No, no," Kahmunrah called out to his retreating army.
"Goodbye, strange bird men," Abraham Lincoln bade them farewell.
"Do not return to the Underworld!"
"Yes, yes, do go back into the Underworld! Thank you for coming! Good night," Octavius told the hybrid warriors, conflicting Kahmunrah's commands.
"No, no," Kahmunrah yelled, but it was too late. The hybrid warriors had returned to the underworld, closing the gate behind them. "Well, this is awkward."
Abraham Lincoln straightened out his jacket and announced, "It appears my work here is finished," He then turned to my dad, "Just remember, son, a house divided against itself cannot stand. Farewell." Just as soon as he came, he left.
After a few moments of an awkward silence, Ivan finally asked, "Now what?"
"You know, I'm not quite sure," Kahmunrah said, "I suppose we should probably start by watching them die!" The next thing I knew, Kahmunrah had grabbed me by my shirt collar and had his sword held close to my neck.
"No," I heard my Dad yell as Ivan's men held him back. I looked over to Al in terror, and saw him completely pissed off.
"Hold on boss," Al managed to say in a calm, even tone, "Why do ya gotta kill her first?"
"Well," Kahmunrah said in a creepy tone, "Haven't you heard of the term 'ladies first'? Well, I know Miss Daley here would love to have the first honors..." I felt Kahmunrah press the blade closer to my neck, I shut my eyes in fear. I didn't want to see the looks of my Dad and my love when I died.
"I'm coming Joel," I whispered quietly to myself, waiting for Kahmunrah to finish the job.
"We are not going to attack right now!" I heard a gruff voice yell out, than a various number of battle cries following soon after. The pressure on my neck was gone in a brief second, followed by the sound of Kahmunrah crying out and metal clattering on the floor.
Someone pulled me to the side, causing me to open my eyes. I was so happy to see Al pulling me away from the battle to the sidelines.
"Thank you so much," I thanked him as I hugged him tightly, nearly on the verge of tears.
Al hugged me back tightly, "Now we're at five times I've saved you." He then pulled away and commanded, "Look I don't wanna see ya in danger again, okay. What happened back there was the scariest thing I've ever had to face. I want you to stay out of sight and leave the fighting to me, okay Viola?"
I nodded in response, "Okay Al, but please be careful!"
Al gave me a reassuring smile, "I will Viola." He then quickly kissed my forehead and added, "You take care of yourself." Then he was gone, back to join in the fray.
I crept behind Kahmunrah's huge pile of wealth, figuring that it would be a good place to hide until I could find Dad. But apparently, someone had already beat me there.
He made a startled, surprised sound as I came up on him.
"Hey, don't worry! I''m on your side," I reassured him.
"Okay, good."
I looked at him, realizing he looked rather familiar. "Hey, you're General George A. Custer, right?"
"Yeah," He muttered in an ashamed tone.
I gave him a quizzical look, but before I could inquire, Dad came around the pile and ran into us.
"Hey, what's going on," He asked us.
"I'm staying out of the fight, like you would want me too," I told him, receiving an approving nod in return.
"I'm hiding," Custer bluntly stated.
"Hiding? What are you doing? Come on, we need you," Dad told Custer.
"I'm a failure," Custer whispered in a low tone.
"What? No you're not," I told him with encouragement.
Custer looked at Dad and I, "Did you foolishly lead 208 Americans to their deaths at the Battle of Little Bighorn?"
"No," Dad and I both replied in unison.
"No? Not good. Not good at all," Custer implied.
"That's not good," I muttered under my breath.
"Sure, I talk a good game, but the truth of the matter is, I don't deserve these stars. I will always be famous for my biggest failure." Custer said sadly, then looked at his feet.
I shook my head and bent down to his level, "Hey. The past is the past, okay? Right now, this moment, this night, this is what you're going to be remembered for. This is your last stand."
Custer looked me in the eyes, then we glanced over to the battle. We saw our friends who needed command and order. "They need a leader," Custer finally admitted to himself.
"Yeah, they need a leader," Dad added on.
Custer started to chuckle and I gave him a reassuring smile, "Yeah? You wanna be their leader, huh?"
Custer began to smirk and nod, "Yeah, I do."
"Let's do this," Dad encouraged. "All right?"
"Yeah."
"Let's go," I shouted.
Custer sprung to his feet and ran into the fray, yelling at the top of his lungs. Sadly, he was met with a fist to the face from one of Ivan's men. "Not good," he yelled.
Dad and I cringed at the sight, but we knew he would be okay. Dad began darting through the fight, but I somehow lost track of him in the middle of the fray.
"Duck," I heard a familiar voice yell as I ducked down, barely missing a fist swung in my direction. "What the Hell do you think you're doing Viola," Al demanded in an angry tone after he had taken care of my assailant.
"I'm sorry! I was following Dad through the fighting and I lost sight of him," I explained quickly.
Al groaned inwardly and grabbed my hand, "C'mon, lets go find your old man!"
We caught up with Dad as he was motioning something to the red-headed lady. Before I had the time to thank Al, he was already back into the fight. I followed Dad as he ran up to grab the tablet from the gate of the underworld, and we ran around back to meet the red-headed lady.
"Are you all right?"
"Never better," replied the curly red-haired lady with a bright smile.
"All right, quick introductions. Viola, this is Amelia Earhart. Amelia, this is my daughter Viola." We both smiled an nodded to each other in acknowledgement, letting Dad continue, "Listen, when I give you the signal, I want you to open the gate."
"I take it you have a plan," Amelia noted.
"Yeah, I'm gonna divide the house," Dad replied quickly.
I smiled, knowing exactly what Dad was planning to do. I could automatically tell that it was going to work like a charm.
Amelia flashed Dad another smile before we went our separate ways. In truth, we only had to walk around the corner to run into the three men we needed.
Napoleon yelled something in French, grabbing the attention of Ivan and Al. Dad and I began to back up as the three began to close in on us.
"The tablet! Now," Ivan demanded in a rather angry voice.
"Okay, sure, you can have it. Just tell me who the boss is and I'll give it to you," Dad said, faking a nervous tone. "Or should I give it to Kahmunrah? He's your master, right?"
"Nyet! He is not our master!"
"Really? 'Cause he acts like he is. But fine, just tell me who the boss is and you can have it," Dad said.
"Hey," Al yelled as he snapped a few times, "That'd be me." He reached out to grab the tablet, only to have Ivan smack his hand away.
"This man is a peasant! I am the only one here of noble birth," Ivan argued.
I could feel the tension rise high between the three of them. So I quickly added to the tension by pointing out Naploeon, "Really? 'Cause he's got more medals and a bigger hat, but..."
"Thank you," Napoleon said in a sing-song voice as he reached for the tablet, but he had his hand smacked away by Al.
"You may got a lot of medals, but you put one of your little child hands on that tablet again, it'll be the last thing them tiny little mitts of yours ever touch," Al was getting really pissed off.
Ivan hit Al's chest in defense for Napoleon, "Why would you touch little Nippy?"
"Hey, hey, hey! I can handle this, okay" Napoleon assured Ivan.
"You can handle nothing! You can barely speak, you fool!"
"You know what? No problem," Al finally said, pushing Ivan out of the way and dropping his tommy gun, "I'll give it to ya. Ya see that?" Then smacking Napoleon clean across the face.
Then it was an all out brawl between the three grown men on the floor. Uncle Larry got a chuckle out of it, while I shook my head in disappointment. "They're no better than a bunch of toddlers!"
"You got this Viola," Dad asked before he left.
"Yeah, I've got this. Be careful Dad," I watched him run off to complete the second phase of his plan.
I sighed and looked at the three men brawling on the floor, "Hey guys, stop fighting."
They completely ignored me. I sighed and said a little louder "Come on, will you guys please stop fighting?" Still to no avail.
I'd had enough of their immaturity, so I grabbed Al's machine gun and leaned against the wall. "GUYS, I SAID KNOCK IF OFF," I finally yelled at them.
The stopped and picked themselves off the ground, throwing quick glares at me until they realized I was holding the machine gun.
"Hey, there's no need for this," Al tried to talk me out of it, "Now just give me my gun and..."
"No," I cut him off quickly, "You're not getting the gun back until you three have listened to every word I have to say." This got them to stay quiet. "Don't you guys know who you should really be fighting right now?"
"Each other," Ivan muttered under his breath.
"No Ivan! You guys are supposed to be allies! You are supposed to fight the man who lied to all three of you, not each other!"
They all looked at each other before the looked at me, "Kahmunrah?"
"YES!"
Napoleon and Ivan ran back around the gate to see what was going on while I help Al up.
"Wow," Al exclaimed as I returned his machine gun to him, "ya really had me surprised their Viola."
"What can I say," I grinned, "I'm just full of surprises!"
"Yeah, ya are," he slid his arm around my waist and pulled me in for a quick kiss, which gave me butterflies again.
We rejoined everyone around the front of the gate to the underworld just in time to witness the last bit of the amazing duel between Dad and Kahmunrah. It was really intense to watch.
Dad had Kahmunrah in a head lock, about to throw him back into his realm. "What are you?"
Dad paused for a brief second, "I'm the night guard." He then thew Kahmunrah into the underworld where he belonged, and Amelia closed the gate, locking him in the underworld for all of eternity.
A loud cheer erupted around the room in celebration of the victory. "The Battle of the Smithsonian," Custer proclaimed from the top of Kahmunrah's treasure pile once things had quieted down, "The greatest battle the world will... never know."
Dad smiled and looked around at everyone in the room, "We'll know."
Al wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me close, "I dunno how, but ya old man pulled through for ya."
I just couldn't believe it, we had won! Kahmunrah was finally gone, and we could bring our friends back home with us!
I stopped at that brief thought, my smile quickly fading. Going home. That meant that I would have to leave Al behind, and I really didn't want to lose him. I had only just met him!
Al noticed my rapid mood change and grabbed my hand gently, "Hey, what's the matter?"
I couldn't hide it from Al, "Now that this is over, I have to go home." A tear streamed down my face, and Al knew exactly what that had meant.
Al pulled me close to him and kissed me slowly for a few moments, then broke away, "Wait right here, I gotta go talk to somebody." He then ran off across the room, and I felt overwhelmed with a sense of loss. I loved him, and I didn't know what to do.
Author's Note- 4/25/11
Dun-dun-dun! The Battle of the Smithsonian! The greatest battle the world will… never know. The next chapter will be the last, at least I think so. :P Review if you wish, it would make me happy if you did! And thank you to all of those who have favorited, followed, and reviewed this story. You guys are the best! :D